Many who produce adult entertainment pull their hair out over the federal 2257 regulations. Those are the laws requiring that producers meticulously document the name, age and identity of the models they employ. But as odious as those laws may be, there's a silver lining. If a model appeared in a film subsequent to July 3, 1995, his (or her) fans will never have to ask "What ever happened to …?" because any studio he ever worked for will have records that enable him to be located.

Consider Brian Hawks. An angelic face, dimpled chin, a head of curly blond fleece, a big cock, killer ass and filthy mouth. Born November 27, 1959 and raised in Azusa, California, Hawks appeared in about 15 porn films, most of them made in 1983-1984. Besides the name Brian Hawks, he was also billed as Shawn McIvan, Brian Hawkes, Shawn Blakely and David Anders (believed to be his real name). In some early photo shoots, he was Angel Damien.

Then he disappeared. According to urban porn legend, Hawks was killed in a motorcycle or automobile accident, but there's no reliable confirmation of either story. Hard to figure that a guy born a scant 50 years ago could vanish without a trace — as have any number of other early porn stars.

The term "bad boy" has been applied to lots of porn models, and its meaning has changed over the years. Today's porn bad boys are rapists, murderers and thieves — not exactly role models. Hawks is the prototype for the kind of bad boy who was a gay antihero. A bad attitude, a relish for sex, a disdain for criticism and a willingness to buck the cultural norms are all earmarks of this kind of badness, whose victims were often only the bad boy himself.

Brian's baby face could be angelic or devilish, depending on what was going on behind those killer blue eyes. His halo of unruly blond hair was worthy of a cherub by Caravaggio and the size of his cock was a guarantee of porn longevity. The southern accent and potty-mouth were a plus.

Besides possessing physical qualities that assured porn stardom, Hawks had animal magnetism that was off the charts. Grab a copy of the Nova film, Brian's Boys, and watch him sashay around in his sneakers and skin-tight jeans, almost on tiptoe. It's sexy enough to give you a hardon all by itself.

Speaking of Brian's Boys, it's probably the best work he ever did, and he's in it from beginning to end. It is a convincing depiction of burgeoning boy hormones run rampant. There's some slipshod photography and poor lighting, and the soundtrack could be improved upon, but it's still a gem of the early 1980s and one of the first porn films with synchronized sound.

Unfortunately, you'll have to buy two DVDs to see it all. The original 102-minute film was shot as a series of loops that subsequently got separated. Different companies ended up owning different parts of the film. The re-mastered DVD currently sold by Bijou Video is the better of the two available versions. It preserves the correct chronology and is only missing one scene — though it's a seminal one, in which Brian fucks Greg Torgeson in an auto body shop on a hydraulic lift while it's in up-and-down motion. To see this scene, you'll have to hunt down an original VHS tape or the earlier DVD release, also known as Brian's Men, which has everything in the wrong order and is missing several other scenes.

Another essential Hawks film is Matt Sterling's The Bigger the Better, which is #4 on film reviewer Onan the Vulgarian's list of the all-time best porn. In it, the narrator describes a typical morning at the campus bathroom. Hawks is billed here as Shawn McIvan, and we see him jerking his enormous meat on the toilet, sucking every dick that pokes its head through the glory hole. After swallowing two loads, McIvan commands the next visitor to fuck him. A third guy joins them, and they play lucky Pierre for a while (guy #2 is the lucky one), before McIvan decides he wants to fuck someone, too, and they change positions. Whenever he doesn’t have a cock in his mouth, McIvan keeps up a nonstop stream-of-raunchy-consciousness dialog in his southern accent.

Sterling brought out the animal in Hawks both literally and figuratively in Like a Horse, where he appears (also billed as Shawn McIvan) in a Tarzan-Boy fantasy with Mike Ramsey. Sterling dressed up the jungle scene with loincloths and a live tiger, adding bit of temptation in the form of the apple that Shawn gives up his hole for.

I always assumed it was Hawks who provided the inspiration for the "creation" and marketing of Billy Brandt, though Brandt could never quite pull it off. If you're a fan of vintage porn and want to see a true original, look for any of these titles: